The U.S. Justice Department says Louisiana has made unnecessary demands for documents in federal government's school vouchers desegregation lawsuit, and is asking Judge Ivan Lemelle push back a document-filing deadline. The request would not affect the date of a scheduled Nov. 22 hearing, although Gov. Bobby Jindal continues to push the Justice Department to drop the case altogether.

Louisiana's school voucher program lets some students attend private schools at taxpayer expense. The Justice Department's analysis says the program worsened racial segregation in 13 school systems last year.

When the case started in August, the federal lawyers wanted Lemelle to halt automatic assignment of vouchers next year in all local districts under desegregation orders. That comprises about half the school systems in the state. The orders aim to produce racial balance in schools and typically involve controls on enrollment and transfers.

The Justice Department limited its request in September, however. It asked Lemelle to determine only whether the vouchers program must comply with school desegregation orders, and if so, whether school systems must amend those orders to ensure voucher assignments are reviewed.

In Tuesday's filing, the federal lawyers said Louisiana -- in the middle of the government shutdown -- demanded an unnecessarily long and burdensome list of documents. They said the documents aren't even necessary for Lemelle to rule on Justice's more limited request.

The state's request includes copies of all open desegregation orders to which the U.S. is a party as well as any modifications or consent decrees. That applies to more than 20 school systems, including those of Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany parishes.

These desegregation orders "will not produce any information that is necessary to resolution of the legal issues the court will consider at this stage," the federal lawyers wrote.

Lawyers for the state sent over Louisiana's documents and analysis request list on Oct. 9, and court rules give the federal lawyers 30 days to respond, Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin said. The day the federal government reopened, Oct. 17, the Justice Department asked Louisiana for a 60-day extension, Plotkin said. The state agreed to an eight-day extension.

On Tuesday, the federal lawyers told the court that simply wasn't enough time, requesting a new deadline of Dec. 16.

"Many of those cases involve over 40 years of history and numerous successive court orders and consent decrees; some of those documents may be available only in federal archives and may require significant time to retrieve," the Justice Department wrote.

Jindal has routinely come out swinging against all court filings from the Justice Department. On Wednesday, he did so again, calling it "the latest example of incompetence from the Obama administration."

"The Department of Justice is basically claiming that these orders are not relevant," Plotkin said. "How can you argue that documents that are supposedly the basis of your lawsuit are not relevant? Did they not look at the documents before they filed this lawsuit?"

In a 2012 case, Lemelle showed himself sympathetic to the feds' side of this question, ruling that vouchers conflicted with Tangipahoa Parish's desegregation order. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals let students stay in their voucher schools pending further litigation.

The court is also considering whether to allow four voucher parents to intervene in the case and defend it alongside the state. Wednesday was the filing deadline for documents in that matter. Federal court staff said there was no date set to make a decision.